Causality & Agency

Topics & Concepts: Resistance, Agency, Causality, Social movements, Justice, Critical Thinking

Guiding Questions: 

• How does oppression cause resistance? 

• How are oppressed people able to resist oppression and gain agency over their own lives? 

• When conducting research, how do you determine if a source is trustworthy?

Unit Sequence: 

• The unit begins with two introductory lectures on the concepts of resistance and causality. The key concept presented through historical examples is that resistance is a direct response to oppression. 

• Next, students are presented with their research project for this unit, which will be about an historical example of resistance. To prepare for their research, students practice identifying trustworthy research sources. 

• Students choose their research topic based on an image of resistance that inspires them. They conduct research on the incident depicted in the image to explain what systems of oppression the subject of the image is responding to. 

• At this point, a new concept is introduced - agency. Students take notes during a lecture on resistance and agency, and then apply this concept to research about whether the subject of their resistance image case study gained agency through their actions. 

• The final assessment for the unit is an essay that students write in response to the question: "How are oppressed people able to resist oppression and gain agency over their own lives?"

Notes on Materials Included: 

• A unit plan titled "Unit 3 Planning Doc" includes learning objectives, key concepts & a daily calendar. 

• Note that the 8 weeks of instruction on the calendar intersperse this unit's content with a review of past material. This unit begins at the end of the second week of the calendar with the lecture on resistance. 

• All lectures have been created on Prezi; there is a file in the folder that links to the three lectures taught in this unit. The assignments in this unit are designed to be completed on Google Classroom.